EMAIL APPEND CONCEPT Digging deeper into your customer databse can have measurable impact on revenue By Dan Babb, Director of Email Append, Walter Karl Interactive., a Division of infoUSA

Welcome to the first of many articles that will share information about how you can successfully use email append strategies to improve your results. Let's first quickly define the different types of append services that exist today. You can learn more about these services, and also view a helpful FAQ at www.appendservices.com

Traditional Email Append:  You have a large customer database containing names
and postal addresses of your customers... but are missing email addresses. This service will match
your file with a permission-based email database, and provide you the email addresses
of your customer.

Reverse Email Append: You have a list of email addresses compiled from online website
registrations, but don't have full name & postal information. Your subscriber file is matched
with a permission-based email database, and the name & mailing address of the subscriber
is added to your file.

Email Update (also called ECOA or Email Change of Address): Like many marketers, you have
a robust email database, but lose around 30% of your email addresses per year because
of bouncing emails. By using Email Update Service, your invalid email addresses are updated
with a new deliverable email address for the same customer.

AMPlify (Append, Model, Prospect): During any Email Append project, your matched customer
records can be appended with demographic & lifestyle information. This information can be used
to build a profile of your online customers; which can then be used to select look-alike prospects
from permission-based acquisition email lists.

After 6-years of specializing in Email Append Services, I’ve talked with hundreds of companies and shared ideas on how an email append can be used to help them achieve their online marketing goals. Sure, there's the simple, straight-forward approach of appending an email address to your most active and profitable customers... but email is such a cost-effective medium that many companies use it to help increase the value of the lower performing segments of their file or to help win-back customers that have been lost. 

If you look at your own customer database, what is the impact of using email as a multi-channel contact?  Don't just look at revenue driven from your online channel or total ecommerce sales... look at your customer database and compare the lifetime value of those customers whom you have an email address for vs. those that you reach only through direct mail or retail channels. Many of my clients have said that the lifetime value of their customers that also receive regular marketing emails is 3-10 times higher than those customers who do not receive email. What does your own data tell you?